Masterpiece (TV series)

Drama anthology television series

"Masterpiece Theatre" redirects here. For the album by En Vogue, see Masterpiece Theatre (En Vogue album). For the album by Marianas Trench, see Masterpiece Theatre (Marianas Trench album).

Masterpiece

Genre| Anthology
Presented by|

* Alistair Cooke (1971–1992)
* Russell Baker (1992–2004)
* Gillian Anderson (Masterpiece Classic, 2008)
* Alan Cumming (Masterpiece Mystery)
* Matthew Goode (Masterpiece Contemporary, 2008)
* Laura Linney (Masterpiece Classic, 2009)
* David Tennant (Masterpiece Contemporary, 2009)

Theme music composer| Jean-Joseph Mouret
Opening theme| Sinfonies de Fanfares: Rondeau
Country of origin| United States
Original language| English
No. of seasons| 53
Production
Production company| WGBH
Original release
Network| PBS
Release| January 10, 1971 (1971-01-10) –
present

Masterpiece (formerly known as Masterpiece Theatre) is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on PBS on January 10, 1971. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these are produced by the BBC, but the lineup has also included programs shown on the UK commercial channels ITV and Channel 4.

## Overview

[edit]

Masterpiece is known for presenting adaptations of novels and biographies, but it also shows original television dramas. The first title to air was The First Churchills, starring Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill. Other programs presented on the series include The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Elizabeth R; I, Claudius; Upstairs, Downstairs; The Duchess of Duke Street; The Citadel; The Jewel in the Crown; Reckless; House of Cards; Traffik, and Jeeves and Wooster. More recent popular titles include Prime Suspect, The Forsyte Saga, Sherlock, and Downton Abbey.

The theme music played during the opening credits is the Fanfare-Rondeau from Suite of Symphonies for brass, strings and timpani No. 1 by French composer Jean-Joseph Mouret. The theme was performed by Collegium Musicum de Paris. Roland Douatte was the conductor. It was recorded in 1954 by Vogue Records in Paris, France, and was later remastered in stereo and re-released by Nonesuch Records in the 1960s.

During the first seasons in the 1970s, the theme music accompanied varying closeup shots of a waving British flag, which panned out into a still image of a British flag on a staff serving as the P in "Masterpiece". In the late 1970s, the opening video switched to views of antique books and other literary artifacts, many of which titles had been dramatized on the program.

In 1980, Masterpiece gained a sister series, Mystery!, featuring a mix of contemporary and classic British detective and crime series, such as The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, and Touching Evil. In 2000, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the show, it presented Masterpiece: The American Collection, nine works by American writers, including Thornton Wilder's Our Town, starring Paul Newman.

## Awards and nominations

[edit]

One of television's most honored series, the various shows aired on Masterpiece have won numerous Emmy and Peabody Awards.[1]

In 2013, TV Guide ranked it #3 in its list of the 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time[2] and #16 in its list of the 60 Greatest Shows of All Time.[3]

## History

[edit]

The success of the broadcast of the 1967 version of The Forsyte Saga on NET (the precursor of PBS) led Stanford Calderwood, then serving as president of WGBH, to investigate whether the BBC would sell programs to the station. Suggestions for the series format came from, among others, Frank Gillard in the UK[4] and Christopher Sarson in the US.[5] In looking for an underwriter for the series, Calderwood eventually met with Herb Schmertz of Mobil Corporation. Schmertz was able to gain funding for the show, and with Joan Wilson of WGBH-TV bought the US distribution rights for fifty hours of British dramas for about $1 million per year.[6] He and several other men, including Frank Marshall, met in London and made a selection of programs to be broadcast.[7]

Decisions on the format of the show were finalized and the series premiered on January 10, 1971, with the first episode of The First Churchills. The working title for the series had been The Best of the BBC, which was changed to Masterpiece Theatre before the first broadcast, with Sarson insisting upon the British spelling for Theatre.[7] The series was hosted by British-American broadcaster and author / journalist Alistair Cooke (1908–2004), who initially had been reluctant to take the role. Cooke appeared for two decades until 1992; native Baltimorean, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and longtime columnist for The New York Times, Russell Baker (1925–2019), was next and hosted for over a decade from 1992 to 2004. From 2004 to 2008, it was broadcast without a host.

The original series producer was Sarson. He was succeeded in 1973 by Joan Wilson. The current series producer, Rebecca Eaton, took over in 1985 after Wilson's death from cancer.[8] Mobil pulled out in 2004.[9] In 2011 Eaton launched the Masterpiece Trust as a fundraising initiative, in collaboration with WGBH Boston. The Trust gives donors the opportunity to support their local PBS station and also "secure the future of superb British drama...invest upfront in the development of new scripts and programs, and grow the [Masterpiece] series both on-air and online".[10] In the same year the series attracted new sponsors Viking River Cruises and Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lauren was subsequently replaced by Farmers Insurance).[11] In the first three years the Trust raised $12 million from 45 donors.[9]

The Masterpiece approach has been reported as being to put up about 10% of the production budget, in return for distribution rights and a degree of consultation on casting and content, but not editorial control.[9] Masterpiece licences programs for several years, after which the broadcast rights revert to the original owners, generally the British producer or distributor.[11] Interviewed in 2017, Eaton described her role at Masterpiece as "the person who chooses which British programs will be included in Masterpiece...looking at a lot of shows that are already made, reading scripts, and choosing the ones that would suit this audience."

> They're made by British companies and British broadcasters – for the BBC and ITV – and once they're done, we bring them back here. It's also my job is to make sure the whole country knows about Masterpiece and knows about whatever show is being produced. There's a great deal of publicity and marketing to be done. I also have to raise money.[12]

## Format change

[edit]

Logo used immediately before the title change.

In 2008, the word "Theatre" was dropped, and the show, officially known as Masterpiece, was split into three different sections. Masterpiece Classic was initially hosted by Gillian Anderson;[13] the following year, Laura Linney took her place.[14] Masterpiece Mystery! is hosted by Alan Cumming.[15] Masterpiece Contemporary was hosted initially by Matthew Goode,[16] who was replaced by David Tennant[17] in 2009.

All three versions received their own opening sequences and theme music with a common signature based upon the First Suite in D by Mouret[11] (originally chosen by Sarson, who had heard it played at a Club Med resort in Sicily, because it sounded "British and heraldic").[7] In the opening to the "Classic" strand of shows, the word "Theatre" appears for a brief moment, apparently in order to maintain WGBH's trademark registration on the former name[18] (in 2011, the show's 40th anniversary, the opening was altered to show "Classic" briefly before showing "40 years"). The theme music was composed by Man Made Music, Inc; the opening sequences were designed by Kyle Cooper of Prologue.[citation needed]

As of 2017's broadcast of Victoria series one, Masterpiece Classic no longer aired with a regular host and the series was no longer branded as "Masterpiece Classic" but simply "Masterpiece".

## The Best of Masterpiece Theatre

[edit]

In March 2007, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the show, PBS aired an entertainment special produced and directed by Darcy Corcoran. The Best of Masterpiece was hosted by Sir Derek Jacobi and featured interviews with Dame Helen Mirren, Hugh Laurie, Damian Lewis, Robson Green, Ian Richardson, Gillian Anderson, Charles Dance, Alex Kingston, Anthony Andrews and Jean Marsh. The countdown special was based on more than 20,000 survey responses posted to the Masterpiece and PBS affiliate websites, the top 12 series were:

* Upstairs, Downstairs
* The Forsyte Saga (2002 adaptation)
* I, Claudius
* Bleak House (2005 adaptation)
* Prime Suspect parts 4–7
* The Jewel in the Crown
* Poldark (1970s version)
* House of Cards
* Reckless
* The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
* Wives & Daughters (1999 adaptation)
* Jeeves and Wooster

At the end of the program, Anthony Andrews thanked the audience for voting the 1981 serial Brideshead Revisited as the seventh favorite series. He then pointed out that it had not aired as a part of Masterpiece Theatre. Rather, it had aired as a part of the PBS series entitled Great Performances.

## Parodies

[edit]

* A series of film, theatre, and television show parodies appeared on Sesame Street as "Monsterpiece Theater", hosted by Cookie Monster as "Alistair Cookie". The theme music for "Monsterpiece Theater" (composed by Sam Pottle) was similar to the theme composed by Mouret.
* Disney Channel had a show titled Mousterpiece Theater hosted by George Plimpton, featuring Disney animated shorts.
* On In Living Color during Season 5 a sketch titled "Parody of Masterpiece" aired in which Jamie Foxx and David Alan Grier recited the lyrics of popular gangster rap songs of the early 1990s by artist such as Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. Cast member Marc Wilmore was the host imitating James Earl Jones.
* Fox's long running sketch comedy show Mad TV did a parody called "Master P's Theater", featuring a parody of the New Orleans rapper of the same name.
* In 2008, Boing Boing Video featured a web series called SPAMasterpiece Theater where humorist John Hodgman read unsolicited email spam in dramatizations in the parody of Masterpiece.[19][20]
* TV channels on American military bases briefly showed a segment called "Master P.C.S. theater" where P.C.S. is a military term for transferring to a new location. The brief infomercial gave advice on how to properly ensure a smooth transfer to and from a military assignment.

## See also

[edit]

* List of Masterpiece Theatre episodes
* List of Masterpiece Classic episodes
* List of Masterpiece Mystery! episodes
* List of Masterpiece Contemporary episodes
* Mobil Showcase Network

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Peabody Award-Winning BBC Programs". Archived from the original on September 24, 2014.
2. ^ Roush, Matt (February 25, 2013). "Showstoppers: The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time". TV Guide. pp. 16–17.
3. ^ Fretts, Bruce; Roush, Matt. "The Greatest Shows on Earth". TV Guide Magazine. 61 (3194–3195): 16–19.
4. ^ "Wild Film History – Frank Gillard". Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2009.
5. ^ Kamp, David (May 11, 2020), "Come On and Zoom-Zoom", The New Yorker
6. ^ Starr, Jerold (2001). Air Wars: The fight to reclaim public broadcasting. Temple University Press. p. 48\. ISBN 1-56639-913-0.
7. ^ a b c "How should public TV follow up the Forsyte Saga success?". Archived from the original on May 18, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
8. ^ "Masterpiece Theatre – Series – Hosts + Producers". PBS. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016.
9. ^ a b c Brown, Maggie (March 1, 2015). "Rebecca Eaton: Masterpiece is the 'little black dress of British drama'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 16, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
10. ^ "The Masterpiece Trust". www.pbs.org. PBS. Archived from the original on May 23, 2018. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
11. ^ a b c "Masterpiece: Frequently Asked Questions". WGBH digital. Archived from the original on April 8, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
12. ^ Legg, Heidi (March 4, 2017). "Before You Say Goodbye to 'Downton Abbey'..." The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
13. ^ "Masterpiece Theatre | Series | Masterpiece Theatre Introduces". PBS. Archived from the original on August 20, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
14. ^ "Masterpiece | Classic | PBS". PBS. Archived from the original on May 6, 2009. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
15. ^ "Tony Award–winning Actor Alan Cumming To Host PBS's Masterpiece Mystery! 2008". PBS. Archived from the original on September 13, 2008.
16. ^ Jensen, Elizabeth (December 10, 2007). "'Masterpiece Theater,' Now in 3 Flavors: Classic, Mystery, Contemporary". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
17. ^ "Tennant signs as Masterpiece host". BBC News. May 14, 2009. Archived from the original on May 18, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2009.
18. ^ WGBH Educational Foundation (August 18, 2009). "Combined Declaration of Use in Commerce & Application for Renewal of Registration of a Mark under Sections 8 & 9". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
19. ^ Lehman, Daniel (October 2, 2010). "John Hodgman's 'Masterpiece Theater'". Blog Stage. Backstage. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2016.
20. ^ Perpetua, Matthew (October 2, 2008). "Masterpiece Theater: John Hodgman's Spam". Vulture. New York. Archived from the original on February 12, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2016.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Masterpiece: A Celebration of 25 Years of Outstanding Television by Terrence O'Flaherty (1996), ISBN 0-912333-74-X
* Masterpiece and the Politics of Quality by Laurence Jarvik (1999) ISBN 0-8108-3204-6
* Making Masterpiece: 25 years behind the scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS by Rebecca Eaton (2013) ISBN 978-1-4104-6841-3

## External links

[edit]

* Masterpiece on PBS
* Masterpiece Shows on PBS
* Masterpiece Studios Podcast on Apple Podcasts
* Masterpiece PBS on Twitter
* Masterpiece PBS on YouTube
* Masterpiece Theatre at IMDb

Awards for Masterpiece

* v
* t
* e

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design

* Addie and the King of Hearts (1976)
* The Bell Telephone Jubilee (1977)
* NBC: The First Fifty Years - A Closer Look (1978)
* Cinderella at the Palace (1979)
* The French Atlantic Affair (1980)
* Shōgun (1981)
* No Award (1982)
* Cheers (1983)
* The Duck Factory (1984)
* Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime / Friday Night Videos / Saturday Night Live (1985)
* Stingray (1986)
* The Bronx Zoo (1987)
* A Carol Burnett Special: Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin (1987)
* Strong Poison: A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery (Mystery!) (1988)
* No Award (1989)
* No Award (1990)
* ABC World of Discovery (1991)
* Liquid Television (1992)
* No Award (1993)
* The X-Files (1994)
* ER (1995)
* Caroline in the City (1996)
* Dark Skies (1997)
* The Wonderful World of Disney (1998)
* Dilbert (1999)
* The 10th Kingdom (2000)
* Masterpiece Theatre: The American Collection (2001)
* Six Feet Under (2002)
* Hysterical Blindness (2003)
* Carnivàle (2004)
* Huff (2005)
* 78th Annual Academy Awards (2006)
* Dexter (2007)
* Mad Men (2008)
* United States of Tara (2009)
* Bored to Death (2010)
* Game of Thrones (2011)
* Great Expectations (2012)
* Da Vinci's Demons (2013)
* True Detective (2014)
* Manhattan (2015)
* The Man in the High Castle (2016)
* Stranger Things (2017)
* Counterpart (2018)
* Game of Thrones (2019)
* Godfather of Harlem (2020)
* The Good Lord Bird (2021)
* Severance (2022)
* The Last of Us (2023)
* Shōgun (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Primetime Emmy Governors Award

1970s|

* William S. Paley (1978)
* Walter Cronkite (1979)

1980s|

* Johnny Carson (1980)
* Elton Rule (1981)
* Hallmark Cards, Inc. (1982)
* Sylvester L. "Pat" Weaver (1983)
* Bob Hope (1984)
* Alistair Cooke (1985)
* Red Skelton (1986)
* Grant Tinker (1987)
* William Hanna & Joseph Barbera (1988)
* Lucille Ball (1989)

1990s|

* Leonard Goldenson (1990)
* Masterpiece Theatre (1991)
* Ted Turner (1992)
* No Award (1993)
* No Award (1994)
* PBS (1995)
* USA's Erase the Hate Campaign / Turner's Native American Initiative (1996)
* ABC's March Against Drugs Campaign / Comic Relief USA / Jac Venza (1997)
* National Geographic Channel / Great Books Literacy Project (1998)
* MTV's "Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Violence" / Save Our History (1999)

2000s|

* A&E's The Biography Project for Schools / The Teen Files / VH1 Save the Music Foundation (2000)
* CNN / Showtime (2001)
* ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC for America: A Tribute to Heroes (2002)
* Lifetime Network's "Stop the Violence Against Women" initiative (2003)
* Viacom Inc. (2004)
* Jerry Lewis (2005)
* MTVu Campaign for Darfur (2006)
* Idol Gives Back / The Addiction Project (2007)
* Planet Earth (2008)
* Sheila Nevins and her HBO documentary unit (2009)

2010s|

* Norman Brokaw / Ad Council (2010)
* John Walsh (2011)
* It Gets Better Project (co-founders Dan Savage and Terry Miller) (2012)
* June Foray (2013)
* Marion Dougherty (2014)
* A+E Networks (2015)
* American Idol (2016)
* ITVS (2017)
* Star Trek (2018)
* No Award (2019)

2020s|

* Tyler Perry and The Perry Foundation (2020)
* Debbie Allen (2021)
* Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (2022)
* GLAAD (2023)
* Greg Berlanti (2024)

* v
* t
* e

PBS

* National Association of Educational Broadcasters (1925–1981)
* National Educational Television (1952–1970)
* American Public Television (1961–)
* Educational Television Stations (1963–1973)
* Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1967–)
* America's Public Television Stations (1979–)

Documentaries|

* Independent Lens (episodes) (since August 9, 1999)
* PBS Short Film Festival (since 2012)
* POV (episodes) (since July 5, 1988)

Drama|

* Masterpiece (since January 10, 1971)

Music and fine arts|

* American Masters (since June 22, 1986)
* Art:21 (since 2001)
* Austin City Limits (since January 3, 1976)
* Bluegrass Underground (since 2011)
* Craft in America (since 2007)
* Great Performances (episodes) (since November 4, 1972)
* Next at the Kennedy Center (since 2023)

History|

* American Experience (episodes) (since October 4, 1988)
* Antiques Roadshow (since January 9, 1997)
* Finding Your Roots (since March 25, 2012)
* Secrets of the Dead (since May 15, 2000)

News and public affairs|

* Amanpour & Company (since September 10, 2018)
* BBC World News America (since June 3, 2019 from American Public Television)
* Firing Line (episodes) (April 4, 1966 – December 26, 1999; since June 22, 2018)
* Frontline (episodes) (since January 17, 1983)
* PBS News Hour (since October 20, 1975)
* To the Contrary (since April 3, 1992)
* Washington Week (since February 23, 1967)

Personalities|

* Samantha Brown
* Ken Burns
* Ric Burns
* Michael Gerson
* Amy Holmes
* Bill Moyers
* Hari Sreenivasan
* Judy Woodruff

How-to and special interest|

* MotorWeek (since October 15, 1981)
* This Old House (episodes) (since January 1, 1979)

Science and nature|

* Nature (episodes) (since October 10, 1982)
* Nova (episodes) (since March 3, 1974)

Networks|

* Create
* PBS
* PBS America (UK)
* PBS Digital Studios
* PBS Kids
* PBS YOU1
* World Channel

Major stations|

* Boston
* WGBH
* WGBX
* Chicago
* WTTW
* Dallas
* KERA
* Houston
* KUHT
* Los Angeles
* KCET
* KLCS
* KOCE
* Maryland
* MPT
* Miami–Ft. Lauderdale–West Palm Beach
* WLRN
* WPBT
* WXEL
* New Jersey
* NJ PBS
* New York
* WLIW
* WNET
* Philadelphia–Wilmington–Lehigh Valley
* WHYY
* WLVT
* Pittsburgh
* WQED
* San Francisco/Watsonville/San Jose
* KQED
* KQEH
* KQET
* Tampa–St. Petersburg
* WEDQ
* WEDU
* Washington, D.C.
* WETA
* WHUT

Former|

* BBC OS (January 1, 2020 – March 30, 2023)
* A Chef's Life (September 7, 2013 – October 22, 2018)
* Need to Know (May 7, 2010 – June 28, 2013)
* We'll Meet Again with Ann Curry (January 23, 2018 – January 8, 2019)

See also|

* List of PBS member stations
* List of programs broadcast by PBS
* PBS Distribution
* PBS Satellite Service

* 1Defunct network
* 2Distributed by American Public Television (APT)

* v
* t
* e

GBH

Television stations|

* WFXZ-CD1
* WGBH-TV
* WGBX-TV
* WGBY-TV

Radio stations|

* WCAI
* WCRB
* WGBH
* WNAN
* WZAI

Media accessibility| efforts|

* Media Access Group (closed captioning and audio description)
* Descriptive Video Service

Television productions|

* American Experience
* Antiques Roadshow
* Arthur
* Ask This Old House
* Basic Black
* Between the Lions
* Cook's Country
* Curious George
* Decoding COVID-19
* Design Squad
* Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman
* Food Trip with Todd English
* French in Action
* Frontline
* Gourmet's Adventures with Ruth
* Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie
* Greater Boston
* High School Quiz Show
* Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One
* Martha Speaks
* Masterpiece
* Molly of Denali
* Nova
* Nova ScienceNow
* Peep and the Big Wide World
* Pinkalicious & Peterrific
* Postcards from Buster
* Religious America
* Rough Cut with Fine Woodworking
* Simply Ming
* The New Yankee Workshop
* The Victory Garden
* This Old House
* Time Warp Trio
* Work It Out Wombats!
* Zoom
* 1972–1978
* 1999–2005

Radio productions|

* Innovation Hub
* The World

Distributions|

* PBS Distribution
* Public Radio International2

* 1WFXZ-CD maintains a channel sharing agreement with WGBH-TV.
* 2Merged into Public Radio Exchange

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